In the first half of 2026 JUMO celebrated disbursing more than US$10 billion in working capital to micro entrepreneurs and short-term consumer borrowers in Africa. Chief Operating Officer for JUMO, Susie Squire leads JUMO’s capital partnerships team. She reflects on why narrowing Africa’s capital gap is one of the most important economic opportunities of our time.

‘The capital is available. The technology is proven. Now it’s about getting more funds, products and choices into our markets – and to do that with the same respect for our customers that got us here.’

Three years ago, seven million people in Ghana were eligible for a loan on our platform. But only three million could actually receive one. Not because they weren’t creditworthy. Not because they wouldn’t repay. Simply because there was not enough capital at the time to lend to all of them.

That gap – four million people locked out of financial services by a supply constraint – is the problem we’ve been working to solve. Today we partner with five banks in Ghana and together we’ve served accessible credit to more than 11.2 million customers. There is still plenty of work to be done and ample opportunity for much greater scale – here and across Africa.

The markets JUMO operates in are capital constrained and closing that gap, I believe, is one of the most important economic opportunities of our time.

With our deep experience in financial services and emerging markets, JUMO works at the intersection of global institutional capital and Africa’s vast, underserved entrepreneurial economy. We’re building the trust, compliance frameworks and banking partnerships that rely on JUMO’s market leading AI technology to reach customers who need it most.

Overcoming prejudice

When we first approached banks and institutional investors about lending to this customer base, we ran into a wall of assumptions. Many capital providers had a mindset of, ‘This is a good idea, but can we trust these customers to pay their loans back?’

Our track record tells a completely different story.

JUMO has facilitated more than 300 million individual loans across eight markets. Our repayment rate hits 96%. That reflects something fundamental about who our customers are.

Many of them face structural challenges: no bank branch nearby, no birth certificate or payslips. Because their other choices are limited, the dignity of accessing a loan privately on their mobile phones matters deeply. Our customers are amazing people. They’re not waiting on anyone for a handout. The only thing that our customers lack is opportunity.

At JUMO, we believe the customers we serve with our partners deserve access to the same well-crafted, well-priced financial services that other market segments enjoy.

What we bring to the table

JUMO is a banking technology platform. Our AI-powered credit scoring, built on more than 10 years of behavioural data across billions of loan cycles provides full end-to-end digital banking infrastructure.

Our technology platform provides banks with a new channel to reach more customers, ones they normally wouldn’t access through their traditional channels, at a low cost to serve. The result is established market returns, at a cost of risk at less than 4%, on a customer base they wouldn’t otherwise be able to serve. We’ve introduced almost 40 million new customers to more than eight pan-African banks.

Earning our spurs

Right at the outset of JUMO, we understood that asking banks to lend to a customer segment they’ve never touched before, using groundbreaking AI technology with immediate disbursement, is a big ask.

So, we had to earn trust, step by step. We had to get the right product-market fit, and we made some mistakes along the way. 

Then came the compliance wrapper. For banks, even if someone can give you a good financial return, you will never compromise on compliance or risk. So, we built it: internal audit, risk reporting, regulatory engagement and a track record of performance. Rather than be afraid of governments and regulators, we decided to embrace regulatory compliance as one of our yardsticks for success.

And then came the inflection point. Once you’ve proven your technology, business model and robust governance to one or two financial services providers, it’s much easier to get a third and fourth on board. However, each of our capital partnerships are unique and innovative in their own way.

A milestone I’m particularly proud of is that we launched the first securitisation of mobile money assets in Africa with Standard Bank. That transaction was a proof point that this asset class is mature, sophisticated and ready for institutional capital at scale.

Our recent partnership with Nedbank to launch Quick Loan in South Africa similarly demonstrates the power of blending the banking strength and capital of a tier 1 bank, with JUMO’s fintech intelligence and asset management capabilities. The collaboration aims to bring transparent, flexible credit to 20 million South Africans, and has unlocked a next generation digital credit ecosystem that signals a new chapter for financial services in the country.

Going on the journey together

At this point, it might be helpful to provide an example of who we’re actually serving, because the numbers tell oAt this point, it might be helpful to provide an example of who we’re actually serving, because the numbers tell only part of the story.

In 2020 we supported a female entrepreneur with access to funding. After losing her job, she started a jewellery business at Madina Market in Accra, Ghana. She started by using JUMO’s platform for emergencies. Then something shifted. She stopped seeing loans as a safety net and began seeing them as a strategic engine. Over nine years and 104 loans, her offered loan amounts grew steadily, a direct reflection of the trust and the business she’s built. Her goal now is to move from her corridor stall to a shop inside the market, and to hire an assistant.

This story is one of thousands. We’ve got customers who own beauty salons and have gone on to open a second. Rural vets who buy bulk vaccines and by repaying their first loan, qualify for larger loans. Market stall traders who’ve opened a third and fourth stall. There is a father who used a JUMO loan to fund his driving licence to become an Uber driver. Then he put his daughter through university. She’s now studying for a master’s degree. Stories like these are what keep me, and many other JUMOnauts, motivated and passionate about our business and all we’ve set out to achieve. 

A few things we do differently from traditional lenders:

• No compound interest.
• No penalty for early repayment. Pay back early, and you access your next loan sooner.
• A cohort-based view of customers. You must be more flexible when you’re serving this segment; you can’t apply punitive measures if you want to scale customer repeat rates. 

And this is why I tell people who join JUMO: ‘I believe the work we do at JUMO will have the most impact of anything we ever do, because we touch so many people’s lives, often without even knowing about it.’

The opportunity of a generation

That Ghana gap mentioned up front – four million people who were creditworthy but couldn’t get a loan – is a solvable problem now, as it is in so many other emerging market economies. Solving it creates real value: not just for those millions of individuals, but for the communities they trade in, the employees they hire and the children whose school fees they pay. 

The capital is available. The technology is proven. Now it’s about getting more funds, products and choices into our markets – and to do that with the same respect for our customers that got us here.

Want to continue this conversation? Connect with me on LinkedIn.